Of Earth and Air
by ImaginaryFlower
Summary: Aria's a girl who loves the stars. Yuuma's a boy who loves the night. It's all by chance that they keep meeting. YuumaxIa


**Of Earth and Air**

**IA's a girl who loves the stars. Yuuma's a boy who loves the night. It's all by chance that they keep meeting.**

**Pairing(s): VY2 YuumaxIA**

**Rating: K+**

**Genre(s): Romance, friendship, hurt/comfort**

**I thought it would be fun to try this pairing out. Whether I did well or not it left up to the reader to decide.**

**The title has no business being there. Quite frankly, it's silly. If you want to hear the explanation for it, all you have to do is ask.**

**/**

Their first encounter was the strangest. That wasn't to say the others were normal. There was no end to strange with Ia, or Aria on the Planetes, as she often signed her name. Yuuma had taken to calling her Aria at her insistence. At first, though, she had been Ia. But even before that, she had been the strange girl with stars in her eyes.

/

Yuuma was late. He didn't make a habit of being late. Sometimes, though, it just happened.

His night class began at nine. His boss had let him off at five. He was running on three hours of sleep and a leftover burrito he had found in the fridge. This was how most every day went for him. Saturday was his day of rest, no night classes or work. Because of this, no one interfered with his Saturdays, not even his boss. He appreciated that.

However, it was just his luck that he'd end up running into someone while running over to his class. He had missed the bus, of course, so taking a shortcut through the park had seemed like a good idea. Until he tripped over someone. He hoped it was someone and not something. Getting attacked by an animal would not do a damn thing to raise his spirits. And it if wasn't an animal and turned out to be a tree root, he'd have no one to blame but himself.

Yuuma found himself sprawled across the grass, his face up close and intimate with the ground. His knees stung and his palms hurt from breaking his fall. Well, attempting to. It wasn't until he had sat up and brushed the now-dirt-matted hair out of his eyes that he caught sight of the _person_ and not the _thing_ he had tripped over.

She was lying splayed out on the grass, wide eyes fixed on the stars. Her hair, a soft pinkish blond, spread out around her, shining in the faint light from the moon and stars. She paid no attention to him, choosing instead to keep her eyes to the sky. Yuuma found the lack of recognition for another human being _whom she had just tripped_ a bit insulting and cleared his throat a bit loudly to attract her attention. It worked.

She blinked once and glanced over to him. "Oh," she began. "Hello."

"Are you serious?" Yuuma demanded, standing angrily. He towered over her, his eyebrow twitching angrily. It was a weird quirk he just couldn't overcome. "What the hell are you doing lying on the ground alone at night? Didn't you think someone might walk through here?"

She looked back to the sky, eyes searching the small pinpoints of light above. "No one ever does," she replied softly. Her voice was gently a light as a cloud, not musical, but closer than the average person's voice would ever get. Quite honestly, if Yuuma wasn't so annoyed, he might've attempted to flirt. She was quite pretty, with those large, bright eyes and her delicate features. Despite it being dark and well away from any street lamps, Yuuma could see that much.

"Yeah, whatever," he said dismissively. "I've got to be somewhere anyway. Don't get kidnapped or something." And with that, he turned his back. Before he could go anywhere, however, he felt a soft hand on his wrist and glanced down to see that the girl had grabbed hold of him. She was now sitting up, legs crossed and eyes fixed on him.

"You've dropped this," she told him, extending her other hand to offer him his phone. It must've fallen out of his jacket pocket. Why hadn't he put it in his bag? Then again, the textbooks would've crushed it. He couldn't exactly afford another one at the moment.

"Oh. Thanks, I guess," he replied, taking the phone from her almost lazy grip.

She nodded once. As he left, he decided that she was too weird to ever get along with. Hopefully, he wouldn't be forced to talk to her ever again, even if she was really pretty.

He didn't need that kind of eccentricity in his life.

/

Their second meeting did not happen in the park. Actually, Yuuma was surprised to find the girl in a regular shop. She seemed like the type who might stumble into one on accident, but never would she approach one on purpose. He was wrong.

It was a few weeks later. He hadn't seen her at the park in the days after their encounter and decided he wouldn't be seeing her again. So he pushed the girl from his minds. Weeks later, he had all but forgotten about her completely. That is, until he saw her again, in the corner of a thrift store, examining a rather beaten-looking telescope. When Yuuma did catch sight of her, he couldn't quell the urge to approach her. So he did, muttering something to his friend about "something over there. Be right back." His friend, a blonde girl named Lily, shrugged and ignored him.

"I didn't expect you to be the type to shop at all," Yuuma opened with rather weakly when he finally approached the girl. She glanced up, completely unsurprised to see him, the focused back on the telescope.

"Sometimes," she replied simply.

"Do you like the stars?" Yuuma asked curiously. It was a valid question. During their first encounter, she had been gazing at the sky.

"Yes," she said. This time, though, she met his eyes, and Yuuma felt as though he had brushed a very, very important matter. "They're beautiful."

How she could say this in such a bland, unemotional way and make it sound so genuine, he had no idea.

"Yeah," he agreed. "So are you going to buy it?"

The girl blinked before glancing up at him again. Her delicate fingers stopped millimeters from the sleek surface of the telescope before withdrawing.

"No," she said. "Not today. Good bye." With that, she went on her way, leaving Yuuma with a feeling that he had annoyed her somehow. When he met up with Lily again, she seemed curious.

"Who was the girl?" the blonde asked as she examined a pair of jeans she thought might fit. Frowning, she decided that the butterfly pattern spread across one of the back pockets was not something she liked.

"I don't know," Yuuma admitted. "I met her in the park once."

"She's cute," Lily stated.

"I suppose she is," he agreed.

Neither mentioned the odd girl again that day.

/

The third meeting took place along a bike path that wound down along the river. Once he thought about it, Yuuma could imagine her as the type who spent all her time out in the world of nature, gathering in all the amazing sights and sounds that she could. That wasn't him at all. He preferred to stay inside, where the temperature could be controlled and the food was just a room away.

Yuuma's bike, however, created an exception to this rule. He loved his bike. It was comfortable and well taken care of. Though it was years old, it looked no older than six months used. Yuumas bike was as important to him as a place to sleep.

It was a rarity that he rode anymore, though. He disliked riding it to class and to work as he had no lock and couldn't really afford one at the moment. There was no way he could just leave his bike unlocked. So it had taken up residence in his bedroom, where it would be perfectly safe save for the occasional sock throw over the handlebars. Unless his bike happened to be allergic to socks, he thought it would be perfectly fine there.

So that was how Yuuma decided to spend his Saturday. Riding his bike. After waking up at around ten and gagging through a bowl of cereal that he didn't enjoy much, he got dressed and moved his bike outdoors.

It was just his luck that it started to rain.

Sometime around 11:45, drops of water began to plip against his skin. Lightly at first, then they steadily grew a bit heavy. Yuuma sensed a downpour that he didn't really want to get caught in and sped up, rocketing down the bike path as an incredible speed. That is, until he saw a familiar girl ahead, walking steadily away, her feet bare and muddy due to the sudden rain soaking the dirt path below. He slowed down on instinct and stopped just ahead of her carefully.

"Do you need a ride?" he offered. With a curt nod, she agreed and he helped her get situated on the back of his bike.

"What were you doing out in the rain?" he asked. "Without shoes, no less."

"It's pretty," she replied as though it made perfect sense.

"Alright then," Yuuma accepted the response evenly. "What's your name? I keep seeing you everywhere and I want to be able to put a name to a face."

She regarded the question silently for a moment and Yuuma thought she might not answer. She did, eventually.

"Ia. Though I prefer Aria, if you please," her voice was so insanely soft he could barely hear it over the pedals squeaking and the rain thudding around them. Thunder rumbled roughly in the distance and Yuuma knew there was worse to come.

"Aria? Alright. I'm Yuuma," he replied. "Easy enough to remember." As though she would need to remember it.

"Yuuma," he heard from behind him and he could just imagine her trying out his name for the first time as though it were a completely different language.

"Yep," Yuuma said. "Now, where am I taking you?"

She was silent for a long while again. "The library," she finally told him.

"Okay then. Not too far. Hopefully we'll make it before the rain really starts coming down hard," he said. The rest of the ride was silent.

When they reached the library, Aria swung off his bike and did her best not to get her long hair caught in the chain or the wheel.

"Thank you , Yuuma," she said softly.

"No problem," he said. "I guess I'll be – damn it."

The rain had begun to pour down harder, soaking through his jacket in seconds.

"I'll be coming in, too, I guess," he muttered as he swung off his bike and dragged it to the bike rack. He'd be right inside and would be able to see if anyone tried to steal it. Damn, he needed a lock.

Aria began to walk towards the front doors, which slid aside to let her in. Yuuma did his best to catch up and followed her to a couch in the front lobby near the staircase. The stairs led up to the teen and adult section upstairs, while the children's section took up most of the ground floor. It had recently been renovated and Yuuma hadn't been there since before the renovation, so it all looked rather strange to him. Nevertheless, it was comfortable and cool, despite him being soaked.

"Are you allowed to come in here without shoes?" he asked Aria in a whisper. She blinked then shrugged.

"Guess we'll just hope no one notices," Yuuma decided before settling back into the couch. The girl had sat beside him, her hands sitting in her lap as her starry blue eyes scanned the lobby. Rainwater dripped from her hair and mud swam away from her skin to plop onto the floor. No doubt someone would be annoyed that they had to clean that up. She made no acknowledgement that she had heard what he had said, but he had a feeling she was the type of person who was always listening, even if she didn't say nothing.

They waited in comfortable silence as the rain cover the world outside, echoing thunder and flashing lightening above. The plants outside drooped with heavy water, letting drops slid and fall through the air. Yuuma had always thought that rain was nice, though he honestly preferred the sun. He wondered if Aria liked the rain.

Eventually, it let up enough for Yuuma to decide he could make the trip home.

"I'm heading out," he told Aria. "You okay here? You don't need to be anywhere else?"

She shook her head. "No, thank you. I'm fine here."

"Alright." _What's so bad about her house that she'd rather stay here?_ he wondered as the doors slid open to allow him outside. He used his now-mostly-dry jacket to wipe the seat of his bike off and set off to his own apartment.

It wouldn't be too long before he encountered Aria again.

/

It was his second time taking a short cut through the park, as well as his second time missing the bus. In the back of his mind, he realized there was a possibility that he would once again see Aria, but he really was desperate not to miss even five minutes of his class.

This time, instead of finding her lying on the ground, he discovered her seated on a public bench as he hurried past. To get her attention he called her name. Once she was looking, he waved before rushing on. It's all he really had time for.

On his way home hours later, she was still on that same bench, though now she looked asleep. Scratch that, she was asleep. Fast asleep, with her head on her hands and her hair absolutely everywhere.

_That isn't safe,_ Yuuma determined and approached her quietly. He couldn't help but smirk. She looked cutewhile she was sleeping. Though closer up, he noticed she was wearing the same knee-length black skirt and brown shirt that he had seen her in last time. That had been two weeks ago. Had she even changed or was it a coincidence?

Hopefully it was a coincidence.

Questions rising in his mind, he kneeled next to Aria and shook her gently to wake her. Blearily blue eyes blinked at him as she stirred, visibly holding back a yawn.

"Oh. Hello, Yuuma," she greeted dully, releasing her yawn this time as it took over.

"Hello yourself. What are you doing sleeping on a park bench?" he demanded. Suddenly, a though occurred to him. "Are you homeless?"

She shook her head. "I didn't feel like going home," Aria explained vaguely.

"Ah. Alright, then," he decided not to push it. They remained in silence for a long while.

"Will you go star gazing with me?" Aria asked.

"What, now?" Aria's face fell slightly. "Well, I'll go, but right now I need to sleep. I have work in a few hours. How about tomorrow? My classes start a bit later than normal." She seemed okay with that and nodded once quickly.

"Great. Are you going to go home now?" he asked. She seemed to hesitate before nodding again. "Cool. Look forward to seeing you."

With a friendly smile, Yuuma patted her shoulder briefly and stood to go. Behind him, where he couldn't see, Aria started and opened her mouth as though she wanted to say something before she closed her mouth once again and watched him leave, her eyes never straying from his retreating back until, finally, he was lost in the dark. Noiselessly, she stood and began to walk away as well, leave the empty bench alone to the night.

/

The next day, the two met up sometime around eight, when the sky was almost completely dark. Traces of warm color could still be seen on the horizon, though stars were also visible. Yuuma, with much struggle, had managed to find his father's old telescope. The lens had been a bit dusty, but it was in decent condition apart from that.

"Look," he raised the telescope to show Aria. She had gotten there before him and Yuuma had no doubt that she had already been there for a very long time.

"Do you want to set it up when it gets a bit darker?" Yuuma asked and received a nod as a response. "Cool. I'll get the tripod." He wrestled it from the bag and struggled to set up the tripod in the dark. The lights of the distant buildings and nearer street lamps were of no use where they were.

"Usually it's better to look at the stars in the country. You know, fewer lights. Light pollution makes it harder to see the stars," he told her. "Did you know that?"

She shook her head. "I didn't," she voiced. "I think… I'd like to go to the country sometime. To see the stars."

Yuuma grinned. "That's a good goal. Pretty easy to achieve, unlike most others."

"Do you have goals?" Aria asked. She didn't sound very curious but Yuuma reminded himself that her voice generally didn't have a lot of emotion in it.

"Yeah. I'm going to be a nurse," he said. "That's my goal."

"Not a doctor?" she questioned. Yuuma often got that question after telling someone what he was in school for.

"No. I'd rather be a nurse," he stated.

"Okay."

It was a relief that she didn't question him further. People tended to get a bit nosy about why he wanted to be a nurse. The truth was that the woman who took care of his dying grandfather when he was younger was his real inspiration. He had always been impressed with the way she handled herself professionally. She was good at what she did, and she was quite kind, too. If it hadn't been for her, he might have chosen to do something with math, maybe engineering.

It was a silly, childish story. He didn't like sharing it. No one ever took him very seriously.

"Are you in school?" Yuuma asked to break the silence.

She shook her head. "I finished high school last year. I can't afford college."

"Oh," he said. What else could he respond with? "So you're a lot younger than I thought. Nineteen?"

She nodded. "And you?"

"Twenty-two," he replied, suddenly a bit sheepish about hanging out with a girl who seemed so much younger. Though admittedly, her attitude and appearance made her look his own age.

"Oh," she said. Though her voice betrayed nothing, Yuuma got the sense that she was genuinely surprised. "I thought you might be younger."

"I guess we were both wrong," he replied. "So, you want to have a look?" He gestured to the telescope that he had finally settled on the tripod. Aria leaned down to place her eye gently against the eyepiece. Yuuma could see the awe in her eyes and felt himself smile.

"Move it around. See what you can find," he suggested. "Just be careful not to break it."

Taking his suggestion into consideration for a long moment, she finally shifted the telescope a few centimeters left and landed dead-center on part of a constellation. Yuuma couldn't identify which one, but he knew it was a rather famous one. The small gasp that escaped her alerted him to the fact that she actually had landed on the part of the sky he thought she had.

"That's amazing," Aria decided softly. Yuuma smiled to himself and let her continue looking in silence.

And hour later, he had yet to grow bored, though his class would start soon.

"I can leave the telescope with you until I walk back through here on my way home," he suggested, understanding that she wasn't quite ready to stop looking at the stars. He found her fascination with the sky both inspirational and adorable, though saying either of these things aloud would probably end up making things a bit awkward.

"If you're willing," Aria accepted the suggested easily, though her blue eyes were large and questioning, trying to make sure that Yuuma truly didn't mind leaving his property with her. She was cautious, he could tell, especially with other people, as if she were afraid she might make them angry. There may very well be a story behind that, though Yuuma knew she probably wouldn't share it.

"Yeah. It's no big deal," he shrugged. "You can come by my class and drop it off when you're done. Here, I'll write down the address." He struggled to pull a piece of loose-leaf paper from his bag and quickly jotted down the place he would be in his spiky writing, hoping she could read it without much difficulty.

"There. Just bring it over when you're done. I'll be there for the next five or so hours," he told her, offering up the paper to her. Aria took it and examined the words written in black pen. She nodded.

"Great. I'd better be going, then," Yuuma continued. "See you later, then."

/

It became a habit to meet up with Aria before class and hand over his telescope for her to use. Most of the time, she'd drop it back off with him, though sometimes he'd walk back from his class and find her with her eyes fixed to the sky, completely silent and transfixed. She became known to his classmates as "that star girl" because of the telescope. Before long, she became known as "Yuuma's girlfriend," though he never admitted to such a thing. Of course, it didn't help that he did find himself growing a bit more affectionate towards Aria. Eventually, he decided that he did, in fact, have a bit of a crush on her.

It was getting much colder out. Yuuma noticed subtle changes in the weather that turned to monumental changes. The temperature took a sharp drop sometime in November and fallen leafs turned to an inch of soft snow. Despite this change, he never saw Aria with shoes. Only occasionally would she show up with a jacket, though it was old and falling apart. Yuuma doubted it did much to fight off the cold. Did she even own winter clothes? Did her parents just not give her money to buy any? Maybe she couldn't afford them.

It spiked worry in Yuuma. She was a sweet girl, even though she was a bit quiet. He had no doubt that the nighttime temperatures were horrible for her to endure, as she hadn't given up her habit of stargazing even in the cold. So he started bringing her a blanket as well as the temperature. It wasn't because he liked her; it was because he was a good human being. She seemed grateful, anyway. Her skin was no longer tinted blue when he met up with her.

Before long, his curiosity had worn on him long enough and he just had to ask. There were many things that confused him about Aria. For one, she walked everywhere. She never mentioned her home life. Sometimes, he'd catch sight of bruises blooming on the backs of her legs or her arms. She was always alone. Worst of all, she seemed to wear the same clothes for weeks before switching out of them. Either she didn't know how to wash them or she didn't own enough clothes to wear something different every day. It was worrying, how neglected she seemed to be. He didn't know what her family was like and hated jumping to conclusions, but Yuuma was seriously becoming concerned. It was hard to watch someone you like suffer so silently.

So he finally managed to ask in the beginning of December, as the two sat in the cold, watching the stars overhead. The past few nights had been cloudy, so there hadn't been much in the way of stargazing. Yuuma had ended up taking Aria to a coffee shop and ordering her a hot chocolate to warm her up. As it turned out, it was her first time trying hot chocolate. What kind of person denied a child hot chocolate? She didn't have any allergies, did she? As it turned out, she didn't, so it seemed that someone had simply never thought to give her any. It was a bit sad.

"Hey, Aria?" was how it began. His voice didn't sound very confident. He didn't want to make her angry or uncomfortable, but he also couldn't stop worrying about her. Yuuma wanted to make sure that she was okay, seeing as she'd never say anything even if something was wrong.

"Yes?" came her reply, soft as the cloud of white breath that was released from her mouth as she spoke.

"What's… what's your home like?" he asked carefully.

Aria considered his question for a long, tense moment. "I don't have one," she replied.

"So you're homeless?" he gathered. She nodded a quick confirmation. "How long have you been homeless?"

"Not long," she stated, drawing her limbs closer to herself. Was she closing herself off or was she just cold? Yuuma resisted the urge to reach over and pull her blanket tighter around her.

"How long is 'not long?'" asked Yuuma.

"A month," she answered. So just as it had started to get cold. She hadn't been homeless for as long as Yuuma had known her.

"Where did you live before that?"

"With my mom. Sometimes my dad."

"What do you mean sometimes?"

She remained quiet for an insanely long time. Yuuma thought he might've crossed some sort of line ad thought about apologizing and dropping the subject. Before he could, she answered.

"He didn't always live with us. He'd drink, pass out, end up somewhere else. Every few weeks he'd show up again and the whole thing would start over again," Aria didn't look at him as she spoke, choosing instead to fiddle with the hem of the blanket as she took a shuddering breath. It was the most Yuuma had ever heard her talk before.

"He wasn't the most attentive father. I don't think he was very happy with the way his life turned out," Aria continued. "Sometimes he'd hit Mom, sometimes he'd hit me. Whenever he left, Mom would blame me. She thought I didn't love him enough. I don't think she really knew what love was."

Yuuma listened quietly. It was fairly similar to what he had thought went on in her house. Abusive and neglectful parents. Aria had never done anything to deserve that. She was so pure. How had no one never noticed until him?

"In the end, no home was better than a home like that," she concluded softly. Yuuma found himself scooting a bit closer to her and leaning into her. She didn't seem very surprised and didn't move away, so he decided it was okay.

"You could have told me," he replied gently.

"Why would you want to know? There was nothing to be done," she stated.

"Because I care. Because you're my friend," Yuuma told her, leaning his head onto hers. He felt her sigh and draw closer, sharing warmth in the cold night.

"It's nice to have someone care," she decided.

Yuuma was glad he had asked after all.

/

The next day, Yuuma had convinced her to come live with him. She was grateful enough for a roof over her head and a heater, even if she had to sleep on a couch.

Three months later, she had the bed and he had the couch.

Six months later, they both had the bed.

Along the way, Yuuma had managed to fall in love with the little homeless girl he met so many times purely by coincidence. Along the way, Aria had managed to fall in love with the boy with the telescope. Somehow, despite a rocky road and speculation as to whether or not Yuuma had forced poor Aria to live with him, they convinced everyone that everything they felt towards each other was mutual. And they were happy enough. Granted, Aria could be a little difficult at times as she had a hard time connecting with people. Sometimes, she still felt vulnerable. Sometimes, she didn't show quite as much affection towards Yuuma as he would have liked. But they managed. Even on Aria's twentieth birthday, when her mom stopped by and caused a scene, they were fine. Even when Yuuma picked up then slowly dropped the habit of smoking, they were fine.

And it had all started because of stars.

Lord knew how many "star-crossed lovers" jokes they got.


End file.
